Still snowing hard as I post this. What do you see? Post photos in the comments, if you’re so inclined. And please stay safe.

UPDATE: The snow has stopped, and the sun is even making an appearance! We are pretty well dug out, though not planning to go anywhere even though the travel ban expires at 4 p.m. I’d also like to take this opportunity to nominate Arthur Sicard, the guy who invented the snowblower, for the Nobel Prize.

Discuss

check out the Red Mass Group thread about how the Governor’s opting to keep casual drivers off the roads last night and this morning is tantamount to tyranny. Perhaps this is what RMG’s Rob Eno was talking about when he insisted that citizens need to be able to own guns to keep a potentially tyrannical government in check?

Governor Tarkin: The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever.
General Tagge: But that’s impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?
Governor Tarkin: The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.

It seemed like the whole neighborhood got together today, people helping each other out and got the job done, everyone was shoveled out and everyone pitched in. In other words, we all worked together.

My intention was to snow blow out my elderly neighbor, but then the family across the street waived me over, then after that, the lady next door to him kept staring at me so I helped her, then the family across from her was struggling, so of course, I did their driveway and sidewalk as well. My dog hopped the fence due to the snow drift in the yard and a stranger calls us and walks the dog back home for us. Physically exhausted but a very pleasant day. There were others who had snow blowers helping those who either did not or had an inadequate blower.

Speaking of snow blowers David, you own a particular model or brand? I have a 70′s Craftsman Drift Breaker, it is massive compared to the ones sold today. I only bring it out on the big blizzards, a foot or more. Otherwise, I use a Toro from the mid 80′s, thing is like a piece of lead, very heavy for its small size, but gets the job done.

Made it through OK a mile from the beach but hearing a lot of damage by the water. I’m sure the news crews are reporting from here so you all probably know more than me – power out until Tuesday here.

Cell service went down this morning and came back up a couple of hours ago. My link to the outside world was my police scanner. Listening to the Scituate Police and Fire frequencies reminded me how lucky we are to have such great first responders. A lot of folks stayed in their houses and were getting rescued around 1 or 2 am as the ocean crept up to their front door. There wasn’t a mandatory evacuation so our first responders had to risk their lives to rescue hold outs. Without a mandatory driving ban, I would imagine similarly minded folks would have gone out on the roads and required more assistance from first responders. Kudos to the Governor for making the right call on the driving ban.

Public Information Statement
Statement as of 4:55 PM EST on February 11, 2013

…Blizzard of 2013…

Blizzard conditions were reached at many locations across southern
New England during the storm on February 8 and 9. Thus it is safe to
call this the blizzard of 2013 for southern New England. Certainly
public perception of this event was that it was most definitely a
blizzard.

The strict definition of a blizzard is that falling and/or blowing
snow reduces visibility to below 1/4 mile along with winds that
frequently gust to 35 mph or more…and that these blizzard
conditions are the predominant reported condition for 3 consecutive
hours.

When reviewing whether a particular observation location had
blizzard conditions…we counted visibilities equal to 1/4 mile
since that is quite low for an automated visibility sensor to be
able to detect. We also made some subjective decisions. For
example…in Manchester NH…blizzard conditions were met for a
consecutive 2 hours 40 minutes…and we considered this close enough
to the 3 hour requirement. At Boston Logan International
Airport…within a 6-hour period blizzard conditions were observed
for 4 of those hours. Thus we decided to count this even though
there were only 2 consecutive hours.

The following observation sites clearly had blizzard conditions.
Durations listed are approximate…